Despite a community organization's best efforts to preserve them, two East Hill homes are being demolished to make way for a new fast food restaurant.

The two residences occupy the corner of a block at East Cervantes Street and North 12th Avenue, along with a building that once housed a Circle K convenience store. All the buildings are being torn down to make space for a new Taco Bell.

A citizen-run organization called Pensacola Save Our Structures worked for several weeks to find someone who was willing to accept the homes as a donation and move them off the property. Teresa Hill, one of the founders of Pensacola SOS, said she was notified Thursday night that the homes were slated for demolition the following day.

In a social media post and video documenting the demolition of one of the homes, Hill expressed disappointment that there was no public notification system in place to warn people when demolitions are occurring.

Pensacola SOS was formed in part because of the demolition of a historic home dubbed the John Sunday House. The building was torn down despite community cries that the building had great historical significance. After the building was razed, the Florida Department of Environmental protection launched an investigation to determine whether the project released asbestos into the air.

In May, Hill wrote an open letter to the Pensacola City Council and mayor writing that the issues were symptoms of problems in the city's planning and permitting processes that "are bigger than Taco Bell, bigger than East Hill."

The letter said, "There is a wide gap between how our citizens feel about how we are building Pensacola, and your standards for development. Residents of Pensacola are being blindsided by approvals to tear down our trees, watching our historic fabric disappear, being exposed to toxic demolition dust and projects that stick out like a sore thumb."

The Taco Bell has been a somewhat controversial development, with some citizens arguing that a Taco Bell didn't fit in with the character of East Hill. Others countered that the area was already home to numerous fast food joints, and any new business was an improvement over a derelict gas station.

Ultimately, Hill launched a petition calling for the Taco Bell franchisee, Southeast QSR, LLC, to make design decisions that would protect East Hill's character. The petition garnered nearly 2,800 signatures.

The franchisee assured residents it would protect or replant trees on the property, leave 12th Avenue's historic bricks intact as much as possible, and seek to make the building and property appealing and non-intrusive to the neighborhood.

In a social media post Friday Hill wrote, "The City of Pensacola needs to step up, and at least do as much as Taco Bell has done for our community."